FORT WRIGHT – In July, the city “on top of it all” will reach a new milestone - being debt-free.

That’s when Fort Wright leaders will be able to set up a final payment on the Battery Hooper Park property, according to the 2014-2015 budget presented for first reading at the April 2 meeting.

City Administrator Gary Huff said $350,000 is owed on Battery Hooper Park, site of the James A. Ramage Civil War Museum.

The museum has been self-sufficient for the past three years, and will remain on the park grounds.

“We pay interest every day on that. The first reading on the budget was this month, then, we’ll have the second reading, and the budget takes effect July 1, and we will get the paperwork to pay that off,” he said.

Huff said city leaders “took an aggressive approach to paying off debts” five years ago.

“We had $1.6 million in debt. We owed money on the city building and the park, so they started putting an extra $100,000 on top of what we owed on the city building, and accelerated paying that off,” he said.

Mayor Joe Nienaber said he and council members believed an aggressive payoff schedule was best for the city.

“We made a decision together that we were going to pay off all city debts during my term,” said Nienaber. “City leaders kept refinancing the city building to pay other debts. It was 20 years old. It cost $1 million to build, and we still owed $700,000 on it. Instead of reconciling our debt and getting our expenses in order, prioritizing what the city is supposed to provide, we were refinancing our city building to pay for street repairs. That’s not good.”

“We were fighting our way out of a gigantic black hole of debt,” said council member Dave Hatter. “We were operating at a substantial deficit, and we did everything we could: Cut costs, deferred expenses. Money we would have rather spent on the streets, to accomplish this. We’re trying to be the best stewards of people’s money we can be. By not making payments and not buying things we couldn’t afford to begin with, that gives us options.”

They paid off the city building on Dec. 14, 2011.

At that time, the city owed $650,000 on Battery Hooper Park, and city leaders applied the money saved from the city building payment to the park payment, Huff said.

“We’re all excited about it,” said Nienaber.

According to previous reports, the property, known as the Storer estate, was purchased in 2003 from Northern Kentucky University for $790,000.

“It’s an achievement for the city to do this,” he said. “I’m not sure how many cities are debt-free, but there are probably more cities that have debts than those that don’t.”

In Kenton County, at least one other city is also debt-free: Taylor Mill. It’s also one of the closest in size to Fort Wright, with a population of 6,659, approximately 1,000 more than Fort Wright according to the Kentucky League of Cities 2012 population estimates.

“Being debt-free might not be common, but it’s common in Taylor Mill,” said Mayor Dan Bell. “We budget in June and go line item by line item. We bring in the amount it takes to run the city and we pay out how much it takes to provide city services. We do everything we can to provide excellent services for as little cost as we can make it.”

Fort Wright’s City Council members already passed a five-year plan that includes purchasing a $700,000 fire truck and completing road improvements all on a cash basis.

“Since we’ll be debt-free, the money we’ve been paying for debt repayment will go directly to infrastructure improvements,” said Nienaber. “It’s about cash flow. Debt hampers your ability to prosper, because you have no choice but to pay the bank. Now, we have options, so we can work on improving our property values. When property values go up, property tax rates go down. Everything we do should be about efficient government and raising property values. It creates value for the city without raising taxes.”